Tips, ideas and tutorials

The humble Moppe drawers

a universal product

I had a family member visiting us once from Australia, and their small daughter pointed at some IKEA Moppe drawers in our house and she chirped ‘We’ve got those at home’… We also had the same plastic kids mugs and flower plates, so I am sure she felt comforted by those worldwide IKEA staples! I love the fact that all over the world, the Moppe boxes are uniformly used in homes to tidy away bits and bobs. Those cunning swedes have also given a creative outlet to many upcyclers and hackers witih this humble product.

I was needing to tidy up my overspilling art supplies and grabbed a couple of Moppe boxes at IKEA last week. On their own they are pretty basic, but with a bit of imagination they can be transformed with minimal cost and fuss.

DECOUPAGED MOPPE

So I looked around at the Moppe situation in my home. In the house I already had these Moppe drawers which I had customised for my daughter last Christmas and each drawer had a gift in it… (note: bit of a pain as I found out as only little things fit inside, even a make up tube was a challenge).

These were done by using chalk paint and wax over the main body of the unit, and then using patterned craft papers stuck on with Modge Podge on the drawer fronts.

OLD FASHIONED MOPPE

Hidden away under a table were these drawers with horizontal shelves and also vertical folders, (which are now discontinued I think…) On these, I did a quick wood stain and added cup handles to the drawers. The handles came from the local hardware shop. One thing I might point out is that the drawers are very shallow, so you need to use very small screws on any handles you add, or else the points come through the back of the wood and can scratch/cut when you are rummaging for things. If you are able to find suitable handles, you can turn the drawers around so the finger hole is at the rear and you have a smooth facade to work with.

painted moppe drawers with handles

My latest Moppe drawers sit in my dining room which doubles up as my work room, so I painted them to blend in with the dresser on which they sit. Both have Annie Sloan paint; the darker smaller shelves are painted in French Linen and the lighter shade on the larger drawers is Country Grey. The pull handles with card inserts came from IKEA years ago and were lurking in a drawer, and the smaller label holders are from The White Company. I printed out a few labels to slide into the inserts on both. The font is sweet, it is Birch STD which you can download here.

So far, my children have been finding the things they need and also knowing where to put them back… it is a miracle!!!

other moppe ideas

Out there I have seen some really great ideas for Moppe, here are a few of my favourites…

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One thought on “The humble Moppe drawers”

I love these ideas! Kicking myself for getting rid of my ikea drawers a couple of years ago. My boys had taken markers to them, but this was before I discovered chalk paint. The scrap paper fronts is genius!!